Playing The Villain
by icarus-grounded
Summary: AU - SasuNaru - Broken hearts and broken homes bring them together, but there are so many things trying to hold them apart... will undergo editing as my writing is pretty rusty, sorry!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or make any money from these writings.

Chapter One

No matter how much he tried to pay attention to whatever it was his lecturer was talking about this week, his eyes were just refusing stay open, and his brain had added to the revolt by drifting in and out of consciousness. Naruto was most definitely fighting with a severe case of nodding dog syndrome. It wasn't unusual though, and he had gone through his usual tactics – two large coffees, lucazade tablets and inane scribbling to try and keep his mind focused on something – yet today none of those were proving to help in any way. Still, you win some and you lose some, and at the moment, as he was still awake, he counted it as a win thus far.

It probably didn't help that his head was slightly worse for wear as he was still feeling the effects of last night's alcohol intake. He didn't really get handovers with the headaches and thirst cravings, but it did leave his head muggy and that made his concentration levels plummet. This morning when he had briefly caught a glance of himself in the small bathroom mirror, everything was already a bit hazy as his eyes were red raw from lack of sleep, and the rest of his dishevelled look made him grimace. After a burst of cold water in the shower though and running a comb through his hair to make it slightly more manageable, even though it was still far from being styled. The look seemed to work for him and took minimal effort so he stuck with it.

"Oi!" The harsh whisper came from behind him and was joined with a jab in the shoulder by some kind of implement. "Naruto?... Naruto!..."

"What?" He hissed back as he turned and eyed up the black pen that looked threatening like it was about to attack him once again. Then his glare moved on to the arm that was wielding such a weapon, and turned into scowl as he eyes rested the girl behind all of this. Her gaze however were already back down on the pages sprawled out in front of her and her other hand was practically grabbing at her pale pink hair in despair. He knew that Sakura always panicked as soon as exams started to close in on them all, but now that her university options relied on her marks, she was basically on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Naruto had never had to worry about such things. His parents were never around enough to drill him on doing his homework, or even ask how school was going. I had even crossed his mind that they probably didn't even realise that this was his final year before he would be leaving for university. Without anyone pushing him, it was lucky that he had the natural ability to always sail through exams. On the other hand, that was one of the reasons why Sakura often enlisted his help, as well as fumed when they got the same pass marks while she knew she had put considerably more effort into the whole process.

"Do you get any of this? It's completely going over my head. Like this part... here... what does that even say?" Leaning back on his chair, Naruto bent his head uncomfortably backwards to see what his friend was pointing at. He had to agree, with her nerves finally getting the better of her even he couldn't decipher the illegible annotations she had tried to jot down.

"Sakura... chill! You know this stuff and you know you're going to pass."

"I don't want to just pass!" A look of horror flashed across her face as she was obviously imagining the possible outcomes of not getting into her first choice course.

Coming back to reality, Sakura's train of thought was interrupted as she noticed that Naruto was struggling not to yawn and now that she looked him in the eye properly, she could see how bloodshot they were.

"Are you okay? Did you even go home last night?"

"What? Where did that come from?" Naruto frowned at the sudden change of topic. Seconds later though, his face was covered with a grin and he announced all was great and he'd had the best night that lacked a lot of sleep. It was an empty smile, but one that Naruto regularly used so she tried not to let her worry over him show. If he could brush it off then so would she.

"Whose bed did you sleep in last night then," she winked.

"Mine... I think..." The actual concentration on his face as he tried to recall whether or not it was last night or the night before that he had passed out on the sofa at a house party was classic. A small crease appeared in between his eyebrows as he frown over the effort it took to access his memory. He did however remember eating some very dodgy looking bread for his toast this morning, and that was from his house, so the sofa must have been the night before. "Yeah, definitely mine."

Sakura laughed but at the same time looked slightly horrified that it took him so long to figure out something that would have been a simple question to anyone else. She had also been implying something that he hadn't seemed to have picked up on, so in her point of view, he had just helped fuel the rumours that had been said about him having a different girl practically every day. Her expression didn't go unnoticed and Naruto saw this as a good time to try and change the subject.

"Anyway..." He looked over the page again and flicked through his folder to find the same topic. "That's just what we went over last week about teams and motivation." Stifling back yet another yawn as he rubbed at his eyes and then temples, he waved her off saying, "it's all that boring business theory about Tuckman's stages of group development."

Feeling that his duty was fulfilled, his chair fell forward with a thud, causing his lecturer to pause slightly, giving him a disapproving look, but continuing anyway without any reprimands. Any figures of authority had most likely given up trying to deal with the teenager in question. Everyone knew that he was always practically asleep during most lessons, apart from the very rare occasional days when he got excited about something and instead was just disruptive with his continuous chatter. It seemed he could only exist in either one of the two extremes – there was no middle ground in terms of Naruto. It was hard for his teachers to find fault though when his grades were always surprisingly above average. He had joked before to Sakura that information just sunk in better when he slept, but after some serious questioning he realised that she wasn't the right person to joke about studying techniques to.

He had also known her long enough that he should've realised that he wasn't about to get away from her that easily just because he had turned back to face away from her questioning. It took a couple of seconds to come, as she must have waited to make sure that the teacher's attention was definitely focused away from them, but then the pen was back in his shoulder blade, repeatedly, until his head turned once again.

"What?" He mouthed.

Her pen tapped the pages in front of her as she locked eyes with him, half pleading, half angry at his reluctance to help. Shrugging Naruto raised his eyebrows in a expression of 'and?' but as he saw her eyes turn a shade darker he tried a different approach and tried to indicate towards Ino, the blond girl perched on the chair next to Sakura that was supposedly her best friend. Sakura rolled her eyes which nearly made Naruto laugh out loud. Sure it wasn't the best suggestion, but it was worth a try to get the attention off of him.

Suddenly the noise in the room picked up and the pair realised they had probably been set a question or group exercise to discuss, giving Sakura the perfect opportunity to lay into Naruto once more. Before she even got the words out, he held up his hands in a mock surrender.

"Fine, look, I'll go over it with you..."

"Wow, a group study session, awesome! I could totally use some help with this stuff, how anyone manages to remember all this is completely beyond me." Ino's high pitched voice was slightly overwhelming when Naruto hasn't expected it. Not only that, she had just invited herself along, which meant what would have been a quick going over of major study points with Sakura had now turned into a complete going over of everything for Ino's benefit which could take forever.

"If you didn't spend all lesson texting..." Sakura started to mumble under her breath but with the intention of being heard.

"Jealousy." Ino stated to Naruto even though Sakura's expression was blatantly saying 'yeah right!'

As she was oblivious to all non-verbal communication that was taking place, Ino just continued talking. "So... when shall we do this? I'm meeting Sai tonight so can we do it tomorrow?"

"I work weekends remember," Naruto pointed out. "Plus we're having a few birthday drinks for one of the guys there straight after. How about Sunday? Shorter work day! So, around six-ish?" His questions were aimed more at Sakura seeing as it was originally her that asked him for help, unlike a certain person that just expected to be able to encroach on the whole thing. She started to nod but was interrupted by unmistakeable buzz of a phone on vibrate.

"Sorry, I've gotta take this." Ino stood up and hit the answer button before she even made it out of the classroom door.

"Sai I'm guessing?" Sakura sighed at the question.

"Who else?" Was her only response.

"Okay then, I'm also guessing that this is a regular thing? I thought they only started going out the other week."

"They did, but seriously, she spends all her time with him, or talking to him, or texting him. It's never ending! Anyway, I've heard enough about him for about five lifetimes, let's just talk about something else. Did you finish the set questions the other week as one of them..."

"Come on Sakura, it's Friday! And we have like fifteen minutes until it's technically the weekend!" With that he lent back again so that his chair was balanced on its two back legs and his feet were propped up on the desk in front of him. "Promise me something, until we meet on Sunday, no work, no studying, no books! Just relax for a bit, okay. Give your mind a break and then we'll go through everything, and with Ino there, I mean everything! Probably about three times as well for that matter."

At least that brought a smile to the girl's lips. "Fine, I promise. What am I supposed to do instead? I doubt Ino will ever manage to detach herself from Sai, and with you at work!"

"Come on! It's work!"

"Don't try and pull that on me Naruto, I know you love it at work! Being surrounded by books the whole time, and you're always talking about all the people there. I'd love to have your job." He couldn't really disagree with her. He had always wanted to work in a book store, and was amazed that he actually managed to secure himself a weekend job there.

"Okay, okay. Come visit though, we'll catch lunch. Plus I know you love checking out the guys there." Out the corner of his eye he saw Sakura trying to fight down the redness that was starting to show on her usually fair skin.

"Oh my god, are you guys talking about the guys at the book store!" Once again Ino managed to barge in mid-conversation. "I think the girls there have completely the right idea - only hire the best looking guys to draw in the customers. Why else would you bother reading?" Both Naruto and Sakura rolled their eyes at the last comment.

"Even Naruto has something going for him I guess, if you like the scruffy bed-head look on a guy." Even though Ino was trying to brush it off, both girls had to admit that Naruto really was attractive. He knew it as well, but only because it was hard to be completely oblivious with the amount of attention he got. If his tanned skin, unruly blonde hair, and piercing blue eyes weren't enough to get people to notice him, his constant smile and seemingly carefree nature just made him so easy for everyone to get along with that it was hard to find any bad points to associate with the boy.

"Maybe you could set Sakura up with one of them." Ino suggested, suddenly the love guru just because she had been in a relationship for a couple of weeks. "I mean... there's Neji... or Sasuke. He's a bit older but still really hot. Are any of them single?"

"Come on Ino, I don't keep track on their personal lives! I'm pretty sure Neji was seeing someone but he's probably with someone else by now for all that I know."

"Not everyone's like you Naruto!"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Naruto seemed genuinely shocked at what Ino was implying.

"You're out every night of the week Naruto, and you always seem to have a whole mixture of girls calling you up. Can't blame people for thinking what they do."

"People? What people? I didn't realise what I did with my time was such a hot topic of conversation." The blonde grinned at the two girls, obviously lapping up the idea of people showing such an interest in him. He was always one for attention. "Anyway, people are just gonna think whatever they want, let 'em!"

"Sure, sure. You just can't let it slip or else all your different girlfriends will find out about each other, then you'll be in trouble!" Sakura joked, or she at least hoped was a joke. He just smiled in return.

The girls gave up there, as they knew that was the most they would get out of him about anything personal. Both girls he would have considered as friends and Sakura especially as they had actually grown up together, but even she had no clue what the guy got up to. A few times she had gone out with him, or bumped into him at a bar or in the pub, and usually he was just chatting, drinking and dancing - nothing out of the ordinary. They found it fun to tease him though, and he always played up to that image without ever letting slip if it was true or not.

Only a few seconds after they had managed to steer the conversation back to trying to figure out what they were actually meant to be doing in class, the bell rang and clatter of people packing up their things filled the room.

"So, where are you off to tonight, or has hell frozen over and you're staying in?" Sakura mocked as they all started throwing books, pens and paper into open bags.

"Let's see..." He said as he pulled his phone from his pocket and started to open the few messages he had received while in class. "Green Dragon down town seems to the favoured option for tonight. That'll do for starters, then hopefully that'll lead on to something open a little later."

"Do you ever go home?"

"Not if I can help it!" With that, he flashed his trademark grin and ducked out through the classroom door.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The next day at work, Naruto wasn't fairing any better than he had been the day before. His head was spinning from the alcohol and he was planning on keeping a constant supply of coffee behind the tills to help him through the day. On arrival the shop was already buzzing with a whole range of activities. Apparently the past few days had been really busy as some schools had already broken up for the holidays so most of the other tasks had managed to fall behind.

"Hey 'Ruto!" Tenten greeted him as he tried to walk past her to go up to the first floor. "Don't suppose you wanna switch today? I'll go upstairs and cover for you, while you help out down here?"

Naruto stopped mid-step and raised an eyebrow. From anyone else that would have seemed like an innocent enough request, however, this was Tenten. "Sasuke?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer. That would be the only reason she would want to offer to take on helping out in the children's section.

The place was actually impossible to ever keep tidy, which most people would usually boil down to the fact that children love to pull things off of the shelves. Naruto, however, had a more informed perspective on the situation. Most the books that were pulled out and dumped in random places came from places too high up for small arms to reach, and many times he'd seen the parents flick through a variety of things which would later be found left on displays and tables around the store. He often felt sorry for the innocent kids that were left to take the rap.

No matter who it was though, it was Naruto's job to clear up after them. He had other things to do too, but that always took up the majority of his time, and he liked hanging out there as it was what he knew, what he was familiar with. Downstairs with all the academic book though was a completely different ball game. Sure he could manage to help down there if he had to, but it was out of his comfort zone, and therefore the day always seemed to drag. It must have been the same for Tenten. She'd be utterly lost upstairs if anyone asked her to recommend adventure stories for a ten year boy, or anything to help explain puberty to a young girl.

"No," Tenten tried to defend herself. "It's because I want to... There's a new... I mean, it would be advantageous for everyone if I had all round experience in every section of the store." It had taken a few seconds, but he had to give it to her, that at least seemed logical.

"Seeing that you put forward such a convincing argument... no!" Tenten's face fell as only seconds before he had finished that sentence she had been sure that he was about to give in and actually agree to her proposal. Instead she was left open mouthed as Naruto ran up the stairs taking them two at a time, to avoid whatever excuses and complaints she had ready as a backup to try and get to work next to the intelligent, dark haired man upstairs that went by the name of Sasuke.

The man in question had had a few days off recently for reasons only disclosed to management so Naruto hadn't even been sure if he would've made it in to work today. However, knowing that he was at the top of the stairs and would be there all day for Naruto to sneak regular side glances at, the teenager's stomach jumped slightly in excitement. Nothing showed on his face though. Sure he was smiling, he always was, but he had so much experience in feigning emotions that it was practically impossible for most people to tell when what Naruto showed was genuinely what he was feeling.

There were many reasons for this, and one of them was because the guy now standing just a few feet in front of him was the most beautiful creature he had ever come across. He had never thought of himself as gay, and he still didn't really acknowledge it as a label to attach to himself. He had gone out with a couple of girls but nothing had ever come of it, and even when he had first met Sasuke when he turned up for his interview, he had only taken notice that the boy was very attractive and left it at that. The more time he spent with him though, even though he couldn't class them as being any closer than he was with any of his other workmates, he found more and more things that he liked about the guy. Maybe it was just some kind of admiration. His body always just acted on instinct but after his mind would try and justify it differently.

He found the rumours about him that went around at school hilarious, and they had also spread to work as Tenten was a friend of both Ino and Sakura. Still, it was easier to lead them on with that than to admit to the truth. He wasn't even sure what the truth was, or he refused to believe what he thought it was. He found another guy attractive, and liked spending time with him, that was all there was to it. Anything more than that and it was easier not to think about. Sasuke had been unavailable for as long as Naruto had known him. One good thing about his relationship though, was that it confirmed that Sasuke's preferences weren't hidden like Naruto's and he was most definitely interested in men.

Naruto, on the other hand, had a mind full of confusing questions, unanswered uncertainties and mixed feelings. They had tormented him for the first few days, maybe even weeks when they first appeared, but he had dealt with them in the same way that he dealt with most things, blocked them out and locked it in the long lost corners of his mind.

"Hey," Neji shook Naruto out of his thoughts as he came up the stairs behind him.

"Morning," Sasuke called to both of them, looking up from computer that he was doing the daily replenishments on.

"Feeling any better?" Neji had walked up to Sasuke and was glancing over the rotas as he spoke to him. "What was with the time off? It's been a great mystery around here - Tenten's talked about nothing else."

Sasuke looked down from the screen and stopped typing as he sighed and his shoulders slumped. He knew about Tenten's obsession and tried to steer clear from her at all costs. He had pointed out on several occasions that she really wasn't his type, but it was to no avail as she seemed to think she could convert him or something along those lines. Still, that was only half the reason for his exasperated attitude. He knew people were going to pry and it had to come out at some point.

"I had to move all my stuff back into my place."

"Oh." Now Neji didn't know what to say. "I thought you and..."

"Look, its fine. I'm fine. It had kinda been heading that way recently but when we finally decided to call it quits it was just more hassle than anything else. He was even the one that suggested we cool it but then hours later he was on the phone trying to take it all back. It was just shock though I guess. Hopefully he'll get over it."

"There's no chance that you might..."

"No." And with that one word, Sasuke started typing again, reams and reams of ISBNs expertly being inputted at record speed.

Naruto hadn't actually moved from the spot he'd been occupying for the past few minutes as he'd been listening intently to the conversation and was now struggling to try and digest this new information. It had been easy to fancy Sasuke before as he knew he had always been unobtainable. That had always been an easy excuse for him to never act upon his thoughts. Now though, without that excuse, he would have to face up to the feeling that he harboured for the other man. That was something he hadn't been expecting to have to deal with, and he honestly didn't think he was ready to do.

A hard slap on the back shook all thoughts from his brain though as his boss's voice boomed in his ear, "Half past guys! Get those doors opened!"

By the time it came round for Naruto's lunch he was exhausted and starving. He tried to think over his options for what to eat but he knew that he would end up going to the nearest possible place. Even if it was more expensive and the food not quite on par with the other options available at shops only a few outlets further down in the shopping centre, when it came to lunchtimes, he got lazy.

As he got to the locker room, he was close enough to hear that the staff room was already occupied, and the voices he could hear included Sasuke's. That meant food could wait. In the quick split second as he entered the room, he took in who was where and positioned himself in a chair that was diagonally to the left of where Sasuke sat giving him a perfect view while at the same time wouldn't be too obvious. A couple of other workers were figuring out who was coming out later for Neji's birthday and had started questioning Sasuke about it.

"Sure, I'll come for a bit. I need a drink after the week I've had."

"Sweet!" Naruto accidently thought out loud, gaining him a questioning glance through the dark bangs that fell over Sasuke's face. The fact that the poor blonde was already troubled over his feelings wasn't helped by how alluring it was to have those dark eyes focused intently on him. "I mean, you hardly ever come out with us, and the more the merrier I always say."

As Sasuke's gaze moved away of him, he felt relieved as he had be struggling with the sudden thumping of his heart that seemed to have jumped into the base of his throat. At the same time though, he was also experiencing a sense of disappointment. If his whole body wasn't betraying him enough, his stomach decided at that exact moment to let it be known that it was not happy about being ignored for a bit of eye candy. He noticed the wrap that came flying in his direction just in time to catch it before it hit the floor.

"You have it. I'm not really all that hungry." Sasuke smiled at him before picking up his bag to take back to his locker. "Later guys."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The hallway itself left no tell tale signs that the house was currently only being occupied by a singular teenage boy. Once you made it to the kitchen though, all the signs were there – empty pizza boxes, piles of washing up waiting to be noticed, and rubbish littering every surface. Packaging and spilt food covered the whole kitchen table, and the even more disturbing part was that if anyone actually bothered to look, there were even empty wrappers in between some of the sofa cushions. Of course this would all be found and tidied before his parents returned from their most recent trip abroad, but for now Naruto was living his own way which included the least possibly cleaning. It would also stay like that for as long as he could possibly get away with it. Luckily, for the moment, the house was pitch black so none of this could be seen.

The deafening silence of the place was usually what drove the blonde insane. He could never stand it there for long before he would head out, calling around anyone and everyone he knew, finding someone to help him pass the time. He never thought about it as loneliness, but that would've been the best way to describe it. The empty house served as a constant reminder that his family were never around. Each room would seem ten times larger when they were away. Every sound would reverberate off the walls and each time a door creaked he was sure it was undoubtedly louder. Naruto had grown accustomed to spending as little time there as physically possible.

Maybe that was what had fuelled the rumours of his reputation. That was something he could cope with though, while the tauntingly empty house wasn't.

Tonight on the other hand, it was going to be different, and the house didn't have a clue what was about to hit it.

It started with a fumbling noise. Metal scraped against metal as a key failed to find a place where it might fit.

Next a small thump echoed down the hallway followed by the keys clattering on the floor.

"Ow!"

That was then followed by a tirade of giggles from various sources before the fumbling started again.

The laughter grew, and then tapping started against the wall much like a mock drum roll building to a crescendo just before the door swung open with an almighty bang. Light flooded in and Naruto stood square in the middle of the doorway looking overly pleased with himself for having won the battle with the key.

"Welcome to my humble abode!" He declared, as he stood to the side, bowing down while ushering his guests in.

"Finally!" Neji exclaimed as he dragged a now clapping Tenten through the door and lead her towards the lounge off to the left before Naruto had even finished his welcoming speech. The others weren't far behind.

"Okay then, guess I'll go and get the drinks," Naruto half mumbled to himself, even though that fact was inevitable as it was after all his house, and he was the only one that knew where the drinks were. Neji had been round before, which was obvious by the way he knew where he was going, but the others were experiencing the place for the first time, which reminded him, " Temari," He poked his head in to the lounge on his way past to the kitchen, "the toilet is upstairs, first door on the right!"

He successfully navigated his way to the pantry before nearly falling head first into the fridge door as a rogue take out box managed to trip him up. By chance his hands flew out just in time to catch himself before he retraced his steps and decided flicking on the light would have probably been an idea a few moments ago. The refrigerator was seriously lacking in all types of food but was instead heavily stocked with a selection of beers, ciders and alcopops. It took a few minutes to get the balancing act just right, but Naruto was soon in the front room with the others, minus Temari, placing the selection of drinks on the table.

All hands came forward to grab their choices, except one. Sasuke eyed up the array of bottles spread out before asking, "Got anything a little stronger?"

Earlier that evening, the brooding raven had thought that a few drinks would help distract him from thinking about the past few days, but so far that plan hadn't worked. However, seeing the others around him were smiling and so easily under the influence, it made him even more determined that drink should be the answer. There was only one thing for it - he obviously just hadn't had enough yet. Unbeknown to him though, he most definitely had already had sufficient amounts or else he would have noticed the blatantly obvious flaws in his current logic.

"Sure," Naruto grinned, his own mind already feeling the buzz of what he had already consumed and as such had some flawed logic of his own. He had decided that if Sasuke wanted something stronger, then he too would also follow suit. He made his way back to the kitchen and pulled out two glass tumblers before once again entering the pantry. This time he bypassed the fridge and opened the cabinet on the far back wall to reveal a selection of spirits. He went straight for the dark rum.

"Good choice."

The recognisable voice that suddenly appeared very close to Naruto's ear sent shivers right down his spine. This was mostly out of fear due to someone being unexpectedly behind him, but there was something else there too. There was definitely something pleasurable about the fact that the person inches away, and whose breath was practically on his neck, was the same guy that he had been sneaking side glances at all evening. Fortunately for both parties involved, the blonde's reflexes were also working to their own rules tonight and his hands chose to tighten their grip on the bottle instead of the usual reaction to shock which would have led to the dark liquid coating the floor beneath them.

Sasuke stepped back as Naruto stood up, giving him room to manoeuvre around to where he left the glasses before pouring out two generous helpings of rum that were only sprinkled with a dash of coke. Naruto was beginning to wonder if he had only poured coke into Sasuke's glass after watching the older man pick up his drink and down it in one. The grimace that he was greeted with on the other hand reassured him that he wasn't going insane; there had most definitely been mostly rum in that glass. The sanity of his current houseguest however was something he was less sure about.

Naruto put his drink back on the side after only taking a tentative sip and watched as Sasuke was already in the process of refilling his own. "Woah there!" He exclaimed as the second drink gave him déjà vu, vanishing in mere seconds much like the first. "Are you really that hung up over some guy?"

The glass came down a bit heavy-handedly as Sasuke suddenly turned his attention away from consuming alcohol and onto the boy in next to him. He wanted to snap at the kid to mind his own business. He also wanted to confess his life story to him now that he saw how those amazingly blue eyes were genuinely showing some kind of concern for him. Anger came back again though as he reasoned it might not be concern but pity instead. Who was this guy to pity him? And how could he be so blatant about it without feeling any kind of remorse or guilt? Was he the only guy that had to feel guilty about feeling pity?

This internal dialogue that Sasuke was having with himself took place in a matter of split seconds, yet in that time he had forgotten what it was Naruto had said. Instead his mouth just decided to say out loud the next sentence in his random trail of thoughts.

"Why do I pity him?" He seemed genuinely perplexed.

The problem was, so did Naruto. "Who?"

"He just keeps calling and the voicemails he leaves... I can't help it; I can't remember ever feeling anything else for him."

"Oh... Him." The whole of Naruto's body quite obviously slumped as this realisation hit him. Of course Sasuke was still going to be getting over his ex, it hadn't been long since they split. Sasuke didn't notice though, just as Naruto was failing to notice that Sasuke wasn't actually hung up on his ex but instead suffering from guilt for the fact that he wasn't actually harbouring anything for his ex at all. He didn't even miss him. All this made him think about way too many things, such as if he had ever really liked him or if he could trust his feelings when he had thought he liked someone before but looking back on it all now he knew that his heart had never truly been all that into it at all.

The awkward silence was interrupted by the sudden eruption of music from the lounge followed by Neji voice trying to tell Tenten to back off and that no, he did not feel like dancing. He obviously managed to break away from her only seconds later as he stormed into the kitchen, glared at the pair still standing there and demanded that they stop being anti-social on his birthday and for a present could they please keep Tenten away from him.

All three men had to try not to laugh out loud as the re-entered the front room to find Tenten now sprawled across one of the sofas having finally passed out. Neji quickly made a move over to the stereo and lowered the volume of it hoping to keep her that way as long as possible, not that anything was likely to wake her till morning, he still didn't want to take the chance.

Temari on the other hand had taken it upon herself to find some other form of entertainment when Tenten had started the dancing, and had come across as pool table in the adjoining room which served as a dining room come games room.

"Anyone up for a game of doubles?" She asked as she appeared next to the others holding a couple of cues.

Naruto racked up the balls and got ready to break. It was a good shot. At least considering how drunk he was, he considered it a good shot. He hadn't actually managed to pot anything but that meant the white ball also still remained on the table and he felt that he had looked professional while taking aim, so he was proud with his performance none the less. Moving out the way for Temari to have her go, Naruto was tapped on the arm by Sasuke who had retrieved their drinks from the kitchen. The blonde didn't fail to take note that Sasuke's glass was once again full, but was slightly more relieved to see the aforementioned male was now taking actual sips rather than going for the all in one approach.

Naruto got quite into the game as his competitive streak took over, especially once Temari managed to pot yet another of her striped balls even though she had been attempting a completely different shot. It was one thing to lose, but it was another thing all together to lose when your opponent won on pure fluke. Neji, who was on Naruto's team, was finding it even harder to deal with this and as soon as that game was over, he was demanding a one on one rematch against her.

Sasuke was happy to leave them to it, seeing as he had managed to quite sneakily sit out of the first game as well. He instead chose to follow Naruto back out to the kitchen.

Upon seeing the raven, Naruto stood between him and the rum before jokingly stating, "I feel I must start to limit your alcoholic intake young man."

Sasuke scoffed at the 'young man' comment and quirked an eyebrow as he raised his glass to show that his drink was basically still half full.

"Oh." Naruto was quite taken aback now. Granted he was only planning on making a joke and had Sasuke actually wanted more rum he would have gladly poured him another, he was now quite bemused as to why Sasuke had come in to the kitchen after him. He turned back to his own drink which he had topped up with coke, knowing from his last few tries at pool that his head was spinning. Looking up at Sasuke and taking in their close proximity, Naruto quickly rethought this and felt maybe he needed some more Dutch courage so did finish it but adding some more rum.

That must have been what pushed him over his limit. After that most things became a blur as to what happened, or in what order things occurred. There had been some idle chit chat better the two as they stood in the kitchen. He knew Sasuke had started the conversation, commenting on the mess before enquiring about the whereabouts of his family. It had been an innocent enough remark but to Naruto it brought to the surface memories that he didn't want to think about right then, so he followed Sasuke's earlier example and downed the drink he had in his hand.

He might have drunk more after that, or maybe he didn't need to. All he could recall was that when Sasuke started talking again, Naruto could only stare at those lips as they moved, and his mind started to imagine a number of scenarios involving said lips. At some point after that, he must have acted upon these thoughts as he was right up next to the other guy and those lips were now touching his. Not only were they touching, they were also opening just wide enough to invite the kiss that Naruto was only too willing to give.


End file.
